Governments must promote the expanded use of natural gas if the world is to start making a serious attempt to cut carbon emissions, BP boss Tony Hayward said today.

Natural gas offers the cheapest and quickest way to cut emissions of carbon dioxide because other technologies, such as carbon capture and storage, are years from maturity, he said at the World Gas Conference.

"We need to take the carbon out of the energy mix today and we need to be realistic about how we are going to do that," Hayward said in a Reuters report.

He argued that the widespread use of renewable energy or carbon capture technologies was years or perhaps decades in the future.

Natural gas is the most attractive option in the short and medium term to start reducing carbon emissions because there are large global reserves and the potential of unconventional gas reservoirs, such as shale gas, is growing.

The incorporation of shale gas into the gas supply in the United States means the country probably has between 50 and 100 years of recoverable gas reserves, Hayward said.